A Storm is Coming
by AreUSirius
Summary: Harry Snow is a ward of Lord Eddard Stark and his family. A bastard son of King Baratheon, what will he make of the world? Or more importantly, what will the world make of him?


**Title: A Storm is Coming  
Rating: T  
Summary: Harry Snow is a ward of Lord Eddard Stark and his family. A bastard son of King Baratheon, what will he make of the world? Or more importantly, what will the world make of him?  
Pairing: None this Chapter  
Words: 2800  
Language: English  
Worlds: Harry Potter/Game of Thrones****  
**

**AN: Sorry to all of you who were waiting for another chapter of **_**Watch and Burn**_**, but right now I just can't think of anything to write for that, so I'm just kind of working off my writers block with this quick oneshot. Depending on how this goes over, I may consider writing some more fics on this crossover genre. Frankly I enjoy both individually and together, they're great. Let me know what you think of it so I can know whether or not it is worth pursuing more. Enjoy!**

* * *

_The Storm is Coming:_

"I need you to take him Ned, for me." Robert Baratheon was the picture of a beggar, on his knees pleading with his close friend, Eddard Stark.

"You know that I can't, Rob. What would I tell Catelyn? She already trusts me less after the affair that brought about Jon. I cannot afford to lose her trust anymore." Ned Stark was sad that he could not help his friend but, honestly, what was he expected to do? Give up his relationship to save some child he didn't even know?

"You need not tell her the child is yours, Ned. Tell her it is a favor for me. Tell her he is mine if you have to. I am begging you though, take care of the boy. He doesn't deserve to be punished for my mistakes."

"Speaking of your mistakes Rob, how did the boy come to be? I thought that after all that happened to me with my bastard that you would have learned to stop fooling around?" Ned was stern, he learned his lesson years ago. After she found out about Jon, Catelyn refused to speak to him for weeks.

"Well my friend, women have many wiles that are yet impossible for me to resist!" Robert laughed nervously, trying to ease the tension in the inn, "Just tell me Ned, can you do me this one favor? Can you pay back your king so simply?"

Ned looked uncomfortable and shifted in his seat before sighing and responding to Robert's request, "You know that I will take the boy. You have no need to pull the kingship card on me, my friend."

Roberts face lit up with glee, "Good, good. Now I want you to make sure that he does not know who his father is. Let him think he was an orphan, it would be much preferable to being a bastard, I am sure."

Ned's face contorted at this, "You would deny the boy the truth of his birth? You wish for me to lie to him, convince the child that he has no loving parents instead of just one? I will not do it! You cannot make me, as king or as friend!" Ned was in a rage, he jumped from his seat and paced the room, ranting as he walked, "I committed the same disgraceful act as you! I had a bastard soon as well, but I took the responsibility for my recklessness. I gave the boy a family, but you wish to foist the boy off on me and never let him know his father? That is a level of shame beyond all that I did!"

"Ned, you must understand me. I do not wish to shirk my responsibility, if I could, I would keep the boy in the palace and have him grow old with me, but you know that Cersei would not stand for that, the Lannisters have never tolerated children out of wedlock. I am not asking you to hide the truth from the boy, I am asking you to protect his youth and innocence. I am asking you to let him grow up happy, instead of ashamed of himself. Let him be."

Ned thought for a moment before turning back to Robert. "I will consider it," he said, "so long as you agree to tell the boy by the time he comes of age. Yourself."

Robert, seeing this as the best possible option under the circumstances, readily agreed. "It is decided then, you will take the boy and raise him. I shall tell him, by the time he becomes a man, of his true parentage. Are we agreed, old friend?"

"We are agreed. I can only pray that Catelyn will not be so infuriated by this as she was by my bastard. She still looks down on the boy, and he is only a child."

"She will not hate this boy. If there is one thing that I understand more than you Ned, it is women. If you tell her too of the boy's orphanhood, she will be so enthralled by the child she would not even dare think of him poorly. He may never be a true Stark, but he will at least have the chance to grow up well with your family."

"Very well then, where is the boy?"

Robert's face lit with glee and he scrambled to get out the door, "I'll go get him and you can leave for Winterfell again within the hour!"

"Robert, wait!" The king turned around and faced his friend with a crestfallen expression, fearing he had changed his mind, "His name. What is the boy's name?"

"Harold. Harold Snow."

* * *

_16 years later:_

Bran loosed an arrow that flew wide of the target, embedding itself in the cast of wine five feet away.

"Go on," Jon Snow prompted his half-brother, "father's watching." He glanced at the balcony where Lord and Lady Stark were then standing. "And your mother," he added as an afterthought.

Bran lined up for another shot, aimed his bow, and fired a new arrow. This one shot past the target and over the wall surrounding the range. It was impossible for any of the boys there to hold in their laughter.

"And which one of you was a marksman at the age of ten, hmm?" Lord Stark barked down to the boys. "Harry is the closest that could come and he was 2 years later before he could hit the eye every time! Keep practicing, Bran."

Bran notched a third arrow and Jon leaned down to whisper advise. "Don't think too much, Bran."

Theon chipped in his opinion as well, "Relax your bow arm..."

Just as Bran was about to shoot, and arrow lodged itself right in the bullseye of the target, dead center. Everyone turned back, looking to see who fired the shot, only to find Arya, the youngest daughter of the Starks. As Bran ran off to chase her, Lord Stark was approached by Harry, bearing news from the wall.

"Lord Stark, my lady, the guardsmen just rode in from the hills. They've captured a deserter from the Knight's Watch."

Lord Stark turned his head down in thought, before looking back to Harry, "Get the lads to settle their horses," he said.

"Do you have to?" Catelyn asked, exasperated at her husband again.

Lord Stark just looked at her, "He swore an oath Cat."

"Law is law, milady," Harry contributed before turning to leave.

When he was halfway to the door, Harry was called on again by Lord Stark, "Harry, tell Bran he's coming too!"

"Yes, my lord."

Harry left just as the Lady Stark began to beg her husband.

* * *

The prisoner was dragged up the hill wearing heavy chains, which clinked and clanged on the ground. He was muttering to himself feverishly, and looked absolutely insane. But that was no defense, not for deserting the Knights' Watch. His punishment was death, and he would get it one way or another.

As he was stood in front of the log, and readied to be beheaded, he spoke out, "I know about my oath... And I know I'm a deserter... I should've gone back to the wall and warned them, but I saw what I saw. I saw the white walkers." He went on, with pleas to console his family, but they were of little consequence to Harry.

The White Walkers.

The White Walkers had been gone for thousands of years. So many, in fact, that most believed them to be little more than tales to entertain children. A horror story of what lies beyond the wall. But those of the older lines, the families who could trace their roots back to the last great winter, they knew the truth. The White Walkers were a very real threat, and if they had returned, then winter was coming indeed, and it would not be a friendly one.

His head was forced into the log.

Lord Stark drew his sword, and passed final sentence over the deserter, "In the name of Robert of the house Baratheon, the First of his Name, Kind of the Andalsand the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, by the word of Eddard of the House Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, I do sentence you to die."

Lord Stark raised his sword and as he did, Harry leaned over to Bran, "Do not look away, your father will know if you do."

In one fell swoop, Lord Stark brought down his sword and sliced clean through the deserters neck, leaving the head to tumble down the mountainside and the soldiers to dispose of the body as he returned to the horses.

"You did well, Bran."

* * *

"It's a direwolf. Soulful beast." Lord Stark removed the antler caught in the dead wolf's throat.

"There are no direwolves south of the wall."

"Now there are five," Jon professed as he picked up a pup from the litter, "Do you want to hold it?" he offered the pup to Bran.

"Where will they go, their mother's dead." Bran's innocence, usually a light for Winterfell, brought pain to those present as they realized what they had to do.

"They won't make it for long down here, better a quick death. They won't last without their mother." Lord Stark moved away from the carcass and motioned for Theon to take the pup.

"Lord Stark," Jon interevened again, "There are five pups, one for each of the Stark children. The direwolf is a sigil of your house, you were meant to have them."

A long silence passed over the clearing.

"You will train them yourselves, you will feed them yourselves, and if they die, you will bury them yourselves."

It hurt Harry to be reminded of his exclusion from the family, but then, he knew that it hurt Jon just as much. Jon got far more loathing from Lady Stark because of who he was. Harry mostly escaped her gaze. Still, the reminder was not necessary, in his mind, kind as the intent may have been.

As they walked back to the horses, Jon stopped abruptly and the rest of the group turned with him.

He knelt down and picked something up from the grass. It was a pair of direwolf cubs.

"Ah, the runts of the litter!" Theon was practically giddy with joy, "Those must be yours, _Snows_!" For he never lost an opportunity to rub in their status.

Jon turned to Harry and offered up a pup to him, "This one has green eyes, like your own. He is meant for you."

* * *

Harry was waiting for the king's convoy to arrive with Jon and the rest of the peasants behind Lord Stark's family. When Arya, the youngest female Stark, finally arrived, he knew the the convoy must be near.

Riding first into the castle were the Lannisters, and a detestable lot they were. Comprised of Jamie and Tyrion Lannister, the Queen's brothers, along with her sons, Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen, and led by the Queen herself, Lady Cersei Lannister. They were as cold and stickish as any living being could be, aside, of course, from The Others.

And finally, as the King Baratheon entered the courtyard, the people following Lord Stark's lead and fell to their knees. As the King greeted Lord Stark, words were exchanged, indistinguishable from where Harry knelt. After the King greeted all of Stark's family, and finally spoke one last time to Eddard, a tense silence followed, and the King's eyes flashed to Harry.

* * *

"Do you remember me? At the age of sixteen, all I wanted to do was crack skulls and fuck girls." Lord Stark gave the king a look, after which the king resumed speaking, "Don't look at me like that, it's not his fault I didn't listen."

Lord Stark turned to the king once more, "And speaking of women, do you plan on telling him while you are here?"

The King turned a puce green color at the thought of it, "No, no. Maybe a year or two more, when he gets older."

Stark's eyes flashed to him abruptly, "The boy is but months from becoming a man. You promised me BEFORE he became of age. You must tell him."

"Must I Ned, must I really? Look at him, he appeared so... content... as we rode in. What would I be if I took that away from him. Is it not kinder to let him think himself an orphan still?"

"Must we have this conversation again, Robert? I told you sixteen years ago, it is far more cruel to keep the truth of his parenting from him, than it would be to burden him with being a bastard. Believe me, I have lived with the boy for all this time."

"But Ned-"

"No. I am sorry, my King, but this is not open for discussion. If you do not tell the boy, I will do so myself. Make your choice."

"Very well, Ned. You always did know what was best for me. Let us only hope that that luck continues to this day."

* * *

The feast was in full swing as Harry stumbled out of the tavern and into the street, only now regaining function of his legs. Jon, who had been beating on a practice dummy since his uncle had left, immediately took notice and stabled the boy.

"What ills you, Harry? For you never drink when you can help it."

"I'm.. Oh Gods..."

"What is it, Harry? What is wrong? Must I fetch a healer? My father?"

"I can't be. This cannot be happening to me?"

"Harry, what is it? You are worrying me!"

"All I ever wanted was to know who my parents were. And now I wish they could just take it back."

"You found out who your parents are? I am sure it cannot be so bad, not worse than me, surely. A bastard of the Lord Protector of the North."

"But it is, it is so much worse."

"Well then, out with it, Harry. Whatever it is, you cannot hope to heal from it while you lock it away inside of you."

"I am a bastard too, Jon. A bastard of King Baratheon."

* * *

**So, ending it on that quasi-cliffhanger, I would be SOOO happy to hear any feedback that you guys have on this. I want to know if you think it's good, bad, or ugly. Your reviews help me to decide what to write, and help me to write better stories. Any advice you can give is appreciated.**


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